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Originally Posted by darklord700

Just spent a rain drench week in Vancouver and I have to wonder why such high praises for this city that she constantly ranks top 5 in the world.

The weather: March might be a bad month to visit but I was told you only see constant sunshine in July and August. The other 10 months vary between cloudy and rain.

The traffic: Being sea bound on the west so traffic going into downtown Vancouver mainly comes from the East. And there’s no highway in GVA and if you think rush hour on Deerfoot is bad, try doing it on Marine drive. At least there’s no traffic lights on Deerfoot and other than the few bridges, it’s traffic light galore in GVA.

The downtown: Downtown Vancouver is beautiful but you see more glass condo than office buildings. North Vacouver is scenic as well but it’s basically a rainforest and rains even more. Richmond, well, why would anyone wants to live there unless you are Asian? Some parts of Burnaby are not bad but the rest of Burnaby is neither a metropolitan nor a suburban so it looks weird to me. Surrey is more like a suburb but God bless you if you have to travel to downtown Vancouver for work each day. It makes going from Airdrie or Cochrane to downtown Calgary seem like a breeze.

The job market: There’re no jobs there as there are very few big corporations there. Even if you manage to fine one, it pays less and you commute longer to get to work.

The housing: Generally, it’s two steps down from what we have here. If you live in a single house here, you’ll be looking at a condo there in Coquitlam or a similar house in Surrey. People living in Richmond probably bought their properties before the boom. Working class cannot compete with institutional buyers there, people come to Canada with a suitcase full of cash.

The food: No questions here, Vancouver simply is one of the best in the world with good prices.

If you are raising a family on employment income, it’ll be tough to make ends meet there. Calgary is expensive and dense but Vancouver is two times as worse. I think all these most livable cities surveys missed the point in that they give equal weight to all factors. Vancouver might be beautiful but what fun would it be to live there as a beggar so to speak.

There are lots of stereotyping, hyperbole and English errors happening in your post.

If you own a single house in Calgary, you can afford more than a condo in Coquitlam. It all depends on how much your house is, but let's suppose it's valued at $500,000. I bought a 3 year old, 2 bed 2 bath 2 story 1,000 sq ft townhome with 2 parking spots near Granville Island for $520,000 4 years ago. I have a 1 and den condo in Burnaby and another one downtown Vancouver that were new construction and paid less than $325,000 for each. Yes, detached houses are expensive in Vancouver, but if you got to Surrey, Coquitlam, Delta, etc. $500,000 will buy you one, and not just a condo.

Parts of Burnaby are bad? Of course. Parts of every city are bad. I'm looking at you Forrest Lawn. Surrey is not a suburb, it's its own municipality, similar to Burnaby, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, etc. Airdrie isn't a suburb of Calgary either. Richmond does have a large Asian population, but they all aren't institutional buyers. The foreign population doesn't prefer to buy in Richmond for investments or holding properties, as there are earthquake and flooding fears, being that it is below sea level. The majority of that money gets pumped into Vancouver. Prices in Richmond have been declining over the last 24 months.

This year's March was really rainy. It might have been the most precipitation I've seen in a March here. There aren't 10 months of rain. What I've found after a few years are it doesn't rain anywhere near as much as people who don't live in Vancouver think it does. It's also not anywhere near as nice as people who do live there think it is. The winter are so much nicer. Yes it rains, but I think I've only seen five days of snow in the last five years. I can golf in every single month of the year, including December and January. Besides Wednesday of last week, it has been sunny and gorgeous here since Tuesday.

There are jobs in Vancouver. In fact, there are lots. Check out the help wanted or LinkedIn sections. You may need specific skills, training and/or education, but they are there. Depending on what you are in, they generally pay slightly less than Alberta. A CA in public practice will make more in Alberta doing the same job. That's simple supply and demand. Mining and real estate pay a lot in BC. Oil and gas pays a lot in Alberta, but are vastly different industries. You can raise a family and make ends meet as long as you make smart decisions. I know people in Vancouver who make less than friends in Calgary, and yet they are better off. Because the transit system is better within GVA, you don't really need a car as much as you would in Calgary or parasite communities. You actually take home more of your income when you make less than $90,000 per year in BC than you do in Alberta after income taxes. Once you break that barrier you keep more in your pocket in Alberta.

Yes traffic is bad. That's why there is a large movement on getting people to take transit and use bikes. The hockey team is insufferable and the fans are worse.

The city constantly ranks high in those surveys, for the same reason that people still want to be here. It's a great place to live. If it wasn't, people wouldn't keep going to Vancouver. The winters are mild in the city, even if they are wet. It's easy to bike to work 365 days a year. You can drive towards Whistler and hit three ski hills, or go the other way and hit a couple more, all in under two hours. There are two excellent universities and a number of trade and technical schools. The working hours are nowhere near as demanding as Calgary or Toronto. The seafood is fresh and there are world class restaurants. It definitely costs more to live in Vancouver, but many people decide they'd rather spend their money on that, then to live somewhere that gets to minus 30 in the winter. YVR is close to the many sunny spots in the States and a short drive to Seattle.

I love Calgary, but I also really enjoy Vancouver. It's why I spend my time between the two cities. No matter what the standings say, Flames rule and canucks suck it.